The eight-year deal — initially planned to run from 2015 to 2022, but instead running through 2023 because of the cancellation of the 2020 games — had each Big East team participate a minimum of six times and each Big Ten program take part a minimum of four times.
[2] The only exception was UConn, which moved from the American Athletic Conference to the Big East in 2020 and never played in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
The series was named in honor of the late Dave Gavitt (1937–2011), former athletic director at Providence College who served from 1979 to 1990 as the first commissioner of the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013.
Plans announced in May 2020 called for Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, and Xavier to represent the Big East and Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin the Big Ten in the 2020 Gavitt Tipoff Games,[5] which were scheduled for November 16–20, 2020.
[6] After the NCAA delayed the start of the 2020–21 season from November 10 to November 25 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] however, the Big East and Big Ten jointly announced on October 28, 2020, that the 2020 Gavitt Tipoff Games were cancelled and the series would be on hiatus for a year.